He and Gloria would re-enact sketches such as "The Festrunk Brothers" with friends. He watched it religiously, although he was only allowed to see "the clean parts" that his parents taped for him. Īs a teenager, Fallon developed an obsession with the late-night comedy program Saturday Night Live. Demento Show, which exposed him to both comedy and music he often recorded it on a reel-to-reel recorder. He spent many nights listening to the radio program The Dr. He considered becoming a priest, inspired by his experiences as an altar boy, but became more interested in comedy instead. Fallon attended the Roman Catholic school St. He and his sister, Gloria, were unable to leave their home and had to ride their bicycles in the backyard. Fallon has described his childhood as idyllic, while his parents have been described as overprotective.
In preparation, the family moved nearby to Saugerties, New York. Shortly after his son's birth, he started working as a machine repairman for IBM in Kingston, New York. įallon's father spent his adolescence singing in street-corner doo-wop groups then served in the Vietnam War. Another set of his great-great-grandparents were an Irish couple from County Galway, with this great-great-grandmother herself being born to an Irish couple in France. His paternal grandmother was a German immigrant from Osterholz-Scharmbeck, while his maternal grandmother's father was a Norwegian immigrant from Fredrikstad. James Thomas Fallon was born in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of New York City's Brooklyn borough on September 19, 1974, the son of Gloria (née Feeley) and James Fallon.
He remained on SNL for six years between 19, co-hosting the program's Weekend Update segment and becoming well known in the process. He was commissioned to join Saturday Night Live as a cast member in 1998, fulfilling a lifelong dream. He is known for his work in television as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and as the host of the late-night talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, which he began hosting after Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ended.įallon grew up with an interest in comedy and music, moving to Los Angeles at 21 to pursue stand-up comedy. James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is an American television host, comedian, and actor.